The People's Republic of New Westio is a very large, orderly nation, renowned for its parental licensing program, hatred of cheese, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 129 million New Westioans are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, corrupt, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 68.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient New Westioan economy, worth 5.20 trillion Westris a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Trout Farming, Tourism, Automobile Manufacturing, and Gambling. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 40,301 Westris, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

More sidewalk is dedicated to animals than people, mantis shrimp studies is academia's fastest-growing field, lawyers spend as much time preparing their make-up as they do their briefs, and glittering new sports stadiums adorn every city and town. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. New Westio's national animal is the Horse.

New Westio is ranked 103,706^th in the world and 83^rd in The Region That Has No Big Banks for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 1,674.88 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.